Going from Scribblenauts’ colorful vistas and adorable Satans to Hybrid’s gritty, war-torn future might seem like a jarring shift, but it’s not like it’s never been done before.

Speaking with Joystiq, 5th Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka explained why – despite what you may think – Hybrid is the next logical step for the developer.

“Our vision has always been to make revolutionary, AAA titles,” Slaczka said. “This has been the basis of every game we’ve ever worked on; it’s the reason we consistently turn down licensed titles. The vision for 5th Cell when we started the company hasn’t changed a bit, and Hybrid is definitely not 5th Cell’s end game – it’s only the beginning.”

“Take a look at Naughty Dog and Insomniac – two fantastic developers making a number of equally good games. Naughty Dog’s Uncharted and Jak & Daxter are nothing alike, the same way that Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank is completely different from Resistance. These games all target different audiences, their gameplay and art is unalike – but they are uniformly AAA titles.”

In other words, why pigeonhole yourself when you’ve got more than enough talent to broaden your horizons? Plus, when you’ve already created a game that contains everything ever conceived, we imagine that everything after that’s gravy.